NFL needs to go after other spies

Armondo SalgueroMcClatchy Columnist

Published Sunday, May 25, 2008

MIAMI -- Throughout the Spygate scandal that tarnished their three Super Bowl victories and branded their coach a cheater, several people within the New England Patriots organization privately fumed because they believed other teams also broke the NFL videotaping policy.

That frustration is likely to become more widespread within the New England organization even as the rest of the NFL breathes a sigh of relief that Spygate didn't implicate anyone else.

The question is, why not?

During a three-hour, 15-minute interview with commissioner Roger Goodell and other league representatives, including director of security Milt Ahlerich, former New England videotape employee Matt Walsh implicated one other team of cheating.

"There was only one other time that I ever suspected another team of possibly shooting our signals," Walsh told the HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, a show that is re-airing time and again on the network.

"Both of us were shooting together on the roof of the old Foxboro Stadium. I was filming their defensive coaches sending in their signals, and I would look over when we were on defense, and I'd see him panning over to our sideline and then going back to the field, panning over and going back."

Walsh suspected the other team's video employee of committing the exact same infraction.

"I didn't say anything to him, because I was doing the same thing he was," Walsh said. "But, you know, after the game, I went into our defensive coach's office, talked with then defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel and said to Romeo, 'You know, the team we just played, you know, I think was shooting our signals,' or 'The team we just played I think was doing to us what we do to them. So, the next time we play them, we might want to change up our defensive signals a little bit."'

Walsh declined to name that team in the HBO interview. But he said he revealed the team to Goodell -- a fact the commissioner had trouble with when asked by reporters if Walsh implicated any other teams.

"He did not," Goodell said. "And my recollection of the meeting, we did ask him the question. He stated that he was not aware of anybody else doing it. He said at one point in time, he became suspicious that one other team might have been doing a similar thing, but he had no verification of that at all."

Stop right there.

This is where the NFL's vehement desire to put Spygate to rest is actually hurting the league.

Walsh put another team under the microscope of suspicion, but the NFL says it will not focus on his allegation.

"Matt Walsh presented no evidence about another team to warrant further investigation," league spokesman Greg Aiello told The Miami Herald in an e-mail.

"It was an anecdote from at least seven years ago with no supporting facts."

No Supporting Facts?

Walsh was an eyewitness to what he believed to be a misdeed every bit as much in violation of NFL policy as his acts on behalf of the Patriots.

But the NFL is dismissing Walsh's account even though the eyewitness gave the league the name of the team and an account of the misdeed, because he apparently failed to conduct and turn over an investigation.

NFL fans want their game to be free of scandal. But, more importantly, it needs to be free of cheating. And if, at some point, some team other than the Patriots cheated, that team needs to be investigated as vigorously as New England.

The problem with having no investigation is that Walsh's statement, made on a national telecast, impugns 31 other teams as possible cheaters although Walsh suspected only one.

The Dolphins?

So were the Dolphins that one team?

Goodell said the Patriots primarily taped "opponents that they expected to play again later in the season, so primarily division opponents."

Walsh inferred the team he suspected of cheating was a division opponent because he told Crennel that New England's defensive signals needed to be changed when the teams met again.

Walsh knew the teams would play again in the same year. So that puts a small shadow of doubt over the Jets, Dolphins, and Colts, which were in the AFC East at the time.

Dave Wannstedt was Miami's coach during the entire time Walsh worked for New England. Now the coach at the University of Pittsburgh, Wannstedt previously has declined to answer questions about Spygate and did not answer a Miami Herald interview request placed with the school's sports information office.

So I asked the Dolphins directly. Was that their employee on the Foxboro Stadium roof?

"There is no evidence that any other team engaged in that activity besides the Patriots," spokesman Harvey Green responded after consulting with team president Bryan Wiedmeier. "So there is nothing to discuss."